What is the Plan?

We need a plan to take down religion. Honestly I thought the internet would do the job, you would think if people had information instantly at their fingertips they would bother to educate themselves about reality. Sadly this great tool for educating the masses is more commonly used for propaganda and porn, online dating and social networking(basically the same thing). So how do we educate the brainwashed masses who feed off of fox news and the bible? We need a plan to show them that they live in a false reality clinging to false hope and lies.Any Ideas?

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I'm encouraged by all the good things that are happening, at least until I realize how much hate and vitriol people have for non-believers. They can tolerate those who believe in something else, but not believing is more than they can bear!

I'm encouraged that our numbers are growing. I'm encouraged that more people are paying attention to us and we're starting to show up (out of the closet) in media.

I was watching Family Guy the other night. Some creep jumped off of Mt. Rushmore and Peter Griffin said, "Ah, those Christians don't believe in gravity."

As people gain confidence in their own individual abilities to live fulfilling lives without a fear of godly wrath or punishment and without feeling guilty about a lack of "faith", it's only a matter of time before institutionalized religion dismantles from lack of membership and lack of interest. I think there will still be people who cling to wishful thinking, but they won't necessarily belong to congregations or attend worship services. But we're making progress! A plan devised by atheists would not succeed... religion must die of natural causes...not some "scheme".

Superstition will fade with time. My hope lies in free education internet sources, available to the masses. Encouraging education is the most liberating way for people to seek answers to questions and eventually there won't be a requirement to be schooled in confined religious settings anymore (just as the future will include more "online classes" rather than traditional classroom settings).

The internet is a great place to start as a pupil of freethinking....it provides a place to wander and explore. No strict path to follow. It has certainly been beneficial to me, as an atheist, to seek more sources of information and gain more insight.

Personally everytime I see a Christian mention his beliefs in an argument when they are challenged, the more I see as if they are having a struggle with those beliefs. Those who don't struggle and truly believe them are indeed, insane (as in the psychological term) some of them seem to be almost at a sociopath's level.

We just need to spread proper education around more. And push it. Keep supporting Britain's plan to arrest the Pope. Keep hoping more books like the ones from Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens get released, and try to give the many Atheists to continue to come out of the closet, and even give those Theists who are struggling, courage to face reality and make it a better place for humanity.

"Take down religion? Nah, not in this lifetime. That would be taking down human nature, which requires belief in the absurd. Absurdity is the life's blood of religious people; they don't want to hear about reality.

Well, from what I can see, this ball is already in motion. I did not know that there was such a large number of religious people until very recently, and to add, I did not know there was aggression against commonly know facts.

As we all know, America still has a large number of religious people, but I would be happy to argue that the number is much less than FOX polls may show. I think if you had the true numbers in front of you, you would find that as the age gets younger, you will find less religious people.

Another thing we need to look at is what does religion bring to the table. The two main advantages religion has is Comfort and Community.

Then primary since of comfort I speak of is the comfort of death. In our evolution as a species, we became so intelligent that we became able to comprehend death. We naturally needed something to fall back on as a comfort tool. The idea that you are immoral and can be with your family forever is a comforting thought, or that you mother will always watch over you. Then they add the tool of discomfort of not believing its true. If you question if its true, you will live forever in suffering and never see you family. That is why some religious people say its safer to believe than to question. Its a mind trap that can be hard to get out of.

Some people see non-belief as a cold option. From the outside looking in, it doesn't have the same glamor as the idea of a heaven. But its only when you enter that you can see the true beauty. Death is never easy, and in a secular world, that doesn't change. I feel that the comfort supplement would need to be a better view on the world around us, and understanding that life is both very beautiful and fragile. This is not something that everyone will be able to learn right away, but this is something that the younger generations can give to their children which in turn will lead us to a secular boom in the years to come.

The other big hurtle needing to be jumped is the community within religion. One side of this is the older sinse of community. If everyone believed in a god, and feared the god, then the fear could be used to hold together rules in a community.

As for now, churches are a place to bring the locals together and socialize. When you attend a church, you are going to meet a lot of people, if you want to or not. They have tons of social events that bring people together. Religion gives everyone attending a common ground. This is another issue that would need to be supplemented if people wish to have a more secular based world.

We would pretty much need to start a new genre of community unity programs. A place that people can go regularly that has both comfort and community, at the same time education about the world around them. I am not sure the exact details on how this could work, but I am sure with a little thought and some hard work, this could be put into action.

The biggest issue would be finances... I bet we could pull half the church members by dropping donations from 10% to 6%. :)

But if funding could be gathered by donation and some fundraisers, this could be a reality. I would be happy to get up and go down to the community center, sit around with the community and hear about the latest revolutions in science, have some secular life lesson stories to ponder over, and go chat with some of the locals. That would be fine, I would be happy to donate 6% of my income to the cause.

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The other option is making me world leader... I'll straighten things out in a week.

Outstanding points! The secular imperatives in this country do not provide an adequate alternative for the "warm and fuzzy" community aspect of religious life. We protest and throw up intellectual challenges, but we do not offer much in the way of an old fashioned camp fire spontaneous "kibbutz" and hands on support when our friends and colleagues are down and in need of aid and assistance.

I feel the best way to take down religion is the way they try to take down the secular side of things: organization and protest. I mean how else could anyone ever let ideas as absurd as "Creationism" sit in our schools side by side with actual scientific study... because they force us to, basically.

If non-theists were organized into a large group, we'd be quite the force; however, organizing non-theists is a bit like herding cats. And while a herd of cats is quite loud, if it has no direction it often disperses quickly into too many directions to follow, with no goal, and ultimately producing very little of substance.

If we could only get everyone on the same page and start lobbying in a large, focused group for the triumph of fact and truth, well maybe we'd have something there...

Overall, I expect eventually religion will die out naturally due to a) scientific progress and facts, and b) just plain absurdity that will eventually be exposed to more and more people, eliminating it all together. However, we're still a long ways off from that ... definitely not in my lifetime obviously. Sad.

Exacty! It's the kids. We've got get the err...religiously deluded out of education. Then need the kids to perpetuate their bullsh*t myths. For a long time, faith has focussed on getting its dirty fingers into the minds of the young. They prefer, I've read (on about.com) that they concentrate on 4-14 year olds. If they get in early enough, in many cases they get them for life. Then it's a case of another wasted life, a life spent worshipping nothing, putting energies into conning others to believe the same rubbish. Surely there's an alternative to faith based organisations dispensing 'education'?

Keep doing what we do on the Internet . . . . in the blogosphere and the forums. It is to our advantage that there are fanatics out there who will trump facts, reason and logic with a tenacious grasp on delusional doctrines, dogmas, and affirmations of the mythical supernatural.

Why? Because there are lurkers out there. Younger people mostly who have been indoctrinated but doubt for any of a number of different reasons. They also respect reason and critical analysis. They can be persuaded. When their mentors do not measure up in the quality of their arguments, only respond to ridicule by ridicule in turn without underlying reason and accurate assertions, they will turn on them.

But also show a little empathy to the people who have to make a break with family, friends, and community to make that leap to skeptical rationality. Honor their courage.